The electrical resistivity of mixed valence materials due to impurities

Abstract

We present a calculation of impurity resistivity in an electronic system composed of two types of states, localized ƒ states and itinerant d state. We envisage the impurities as giving rise to potential scattering. We note that the resistivity due to scattering from a distribution of displacements of the 4ƒ binding energies gives rise to a similar behavior to the impurity resistivity of CePd 3. We offer a tentative explanation based on local lattice distortions caused by the impurities, which are assumed to couple to the 4ƒ orbitals.